Substantially water-insoluble photographic additives, for example, oil-soluble couplers, antioxidants to be used for prevention of color fading, color fog or color mixing (such as alkylhydroquinones, alkylphenols, chromans and coumarones), hardeners, oil-soluble filter dyes, oil-soluble ultraviolet absorbents, DIR compounds (such as DIR hydroquinones and colorless DIR compounds), developing agents, dye developing agents, DDR redox compounds DDR couplers, are dissolved in a suitable high boiling point solvent, and the resulting solution is dispersed in a hydrophilic organic colloid, such as a gelatin solution, in the presence of a surfactant, whereby said additives are incorporated into the hydrophilic organic colloid layer. Examples of hydrophilic organic layers include light-sensitive emulsion layers, filter layers, backing layers, anti-halation layers, interlayers and protective layers. As the high boiling point organic solvent, phthalic acid ester series compounds and phosphoric acid ester series compounds are preferred.
Phthalic acid ester series compounds, known in the photographic arts, display excellent coupler-dispersability properties and have a high affinity for various organic colloid layers such as gelatin. Moreover, they have been known to favorably influence both the stability and the hue of the color images formed as well as the stability of the chemicals in the photographic material prior to development. The phthalic acid esters are readily available at a low cost. Examples of these compounds are described Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 91325/79, 149348/84, 216245/83, 109053/84, and 171953/84. (The term "OPI" as used herein means a "published unexamined Japanese patent application.) However, these known phthalic acid ester series compounds have been found to be insufficient for use in the recently developed high-quality light-sensitive photographic materials with respect to their solubility, dispersibility and long-term stability of the dispersion, color forming property and latent image storability.